. . .because Morris, Minnesota, is a pleasant, quiet, safe yet intellectually stimulating place on the west central Minnesota prairie, home of the U of M-Morris and a whole lot of interesting people. - morris mn

"You'll never get ahead if you don't take care of what you have." - Doris Waddell, RIP

A historic building on our U of M-Morris campus - morris mn

The multi-ethnic building was the original home of the music department at UMM. (B.W. photo)

Next stop: St. Cloud State. The big football stadium at SCSU will be the site for the next MACA football challenge.

We're into the post-season now. It began with a bye for our
undefeated Tigers. The well-rested squad then took the field Saturday
night at their own comfortable venue of Big Cat Stadium.

Our stadium here has a feel much like the St. Cloud stadium. These
stadiums are part of a popular new wave of artificial turf venues. The
St. Cloud stadium is right next to the grand Mississippi River. It's
part of a complex that includes the hockey arena and old Halenbeck Hall
(and fieldhouse).

Kickoff time is set for 5:45 p.m. this Friday, Nov. 2. The Tigers
take a 9-0 season mark into this new challenge. On the other side of the
football will be New London-Spicer, the Wildcats. The Tigers and
Wildcats are set to clash in the Section 6AAA championship game.

We saw the Tigers take care of business Saturday in the semis vs.
Albany. The Tigers began taking over this game in the second quarter,
and the situation became more rosy in the third. The four quarters ended with MACA up 33-13.

The first quarter saw each team score a touchdown. It was the
Tigers striking first as quarterback Jacob Torgerson ran the football
into the end zone from the seven. Noah Grove kicked the point-after.

But Albany answered promptly with a kickoff return that ended in
the end zone. It was Mike Schlangen returning that kickoff for six for
Albany. The PAT kick try was unsuccessful. The first quarter ended with
coach Jerry Witt's Tigers leading 7-6.

Any suspense would fade pretty steadily. The Tigers seized the "mo" by scoring 13 points each in the second and third quarters.

Here's how these four Tiger touchdowns unfolded: Tom Holland scored
on a run from the eleven. Grove's kick was true. Torgerson found
daylight for a score from the one. This time the PAT try was no-go.
Connor Metzger then took over, turning on the jets on a scoring run from
34 yards. Grove found the middle of the uprights. Then Jordan Staples
scored on an eight-yard run, after which the PAT try misfired.

Albany scored the night's final touchdown as it was Schlangen again
finding the end zone on a 14-yard scamper. Scott Litchy kicked the
point-after.

The Tigers bathed in a wave of warm cheers from their home sideline. Warm, yes, on an otherwise quite chilly night.

Coach Witt had to smile about the turnover-free football his squad
played. He also had to beam about his team's aggressive defense
reflected in six quarterback sacks. Intensity, yes!

The Tigers had 17 first downs.

The rushing attack was a force indeed. Tom Holland covered 123
rushing yards in 14 carries. Staples charged forward for 58 yards in
eleven carries. Tanner Picht picked up 69 rushing yards in ten carries.
Metzger's big TD run was part of four carries for 53 yards for this
reliable Tiger. Torgerson contributed 24 rushing yards, and Aaron Nelson
added a handful of yards to the mix.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

The conference meet may have suggested "summer" but you know how it
is in Minnesota. We cross our fingers that the mild weather can persist
but it never does.

A rather chilly day greeted the MACA running Tigers and their
fellow harriers from around Section 6A Thursday (10/25). This was the
big day for determining who'd get the nod for state. Maybe it didn't
feel like winter but the 35-degree state of affairs suggested it's on
our doorstep. At least we don't have a hurricane moving in like out
east. "Hurricane Sandy" might wreak havoc. ("Sandy" is the name of our
family dog, age 16 and holding his own nicely.)

Runners dealt with a piercing north wind in addition to the
temperature that flirted with freezing. The site for this mass affair:
New London (Little Crow Country Club). Runners took off from the
starting line in late afternoon.

What a spectacle the Section 6A meet was, following tradition.

It doesn't take long for a runner to forget the effects of the
cold. MaKenzie Smith was a runner to watch on this day. It was a smart
bet Smith would make state. The big question for this MACA Tiger harrier
was if she could be first to the finish line. Senior Smith is a
two-time conference champion runner.

Smith had to settle for second place on this day. Ahead of her was a
Dragon of Litchfield: Savannah Ramirez. Ramirez has had an up-and-down
cross country career, making state in her eighth and ninth grade years
only to falter as a sophomore when she finished a modest 14th in
section. She demonstrated Thursday that her 2011 performance might just have been an aberration.

On Thursday Ramirez was on top of her game, turning in her
season-best running and getting clocked at 15:01 over the 4000 meters.
The Dragon junior carved out a 19-second advantage over second place
Smith who arrived at the finish chute with a 15:20 time. Smith is
obviously in for state with Ramirez.

Ramirez has won just two races this season but she's excelling when it counts. Smith is an MACA senior.

Ramirez was quoted saying she really just wanted to keep up with
Smith. But she found she was totally on her game and just accelerated.
She gives much praise to her coach Julie Dengerud. Dengerud has the boys
and girls running together in practice a lot. So the girls often test
and push themselves vs. the boys. Ramirez felt she had incentive to work
harder.

Smith and her Tiger mates are coached by Dale Henrich. Henrich will
be getting Smith ready for the climactic state meet which is set for
November 3 in Northfield.

Smith was joined in the MACA girls effort by Rachel Rausch (24th,
16:43), Savannah Aanerud (29th, 17:12), Becca Holland (47th, 17:50),
Tahni Jungst (70th, 18:56) and Miranda Day (101st, 22:41). The Tigers as
a team placed sixth. The champion was Holdingford.

The boys race saw Seth Hare of Albany run like a hare and he took first, helping lift his team to No. 1.

Aaron Goulet paced the Tigers. Goulet was clocked at 18:18 which
put him in 21st. Beau Keimig was clocked at 18:59 which put him in 40th.
Ryan Gray's time of 19:18 put him in 53rd. Roy Reese covered the 5000
meters in 18:42, good for 66th. Jon Jerke placed 81st (20:12) and Eric
Staebler 90th (20:51). The MACA boys placed ninth as a team.

Volleyball: Montevideo 3, Tigers 1

Boy, we didn't see this coming. The MACA volleyball team which had
fashioned so much success in the second half of the schedule, and which
had the No. 3 seed plus home court, got stunned by the No. 6 seed
Friday (10/26).

About the only criticism yours truly has of MACA Tiger athletics in
2012, is that our teams have trouble surpassing expectations in the
post-season. The Friday match can be added as an exhibit supporting this
argument.

You might think the home crowd if nothing else could help lift Morris Area Chokio Alberta to success.

What happened to all those ingredients that spelled abundant
success for our Tigers down the home stretch of the schedule? The
purple-themed Montevideo Thunder Hawks, seeded a modest sixth, came to
MACA and quieted the home crowd, turning back our Tigers in four games.
This was a Section 3AA North quarter-finals match.

Here are the game scores (MACA numbers first): 28-30, 25-13, 21-25
and 13-25. Monte will strive to play giant-killer again on Tuesday at
Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop (No. 2 seed).

Setter Tori Kuhlman of the T-Hawks was a dynamic force in her role
Friday. Kuhlman had good/attempts numbers of 131-136 and picked up 45
assists. She was a cog helping facilitate the Monte hitting which had a
balanced look. Kayla Collins produced 15 kills and Nettie Duvall 11.
Several other T-Hawks had their moments at the net.

The Tigers had to be especially aware of Alyssa Stern at the net.
Stern was a determined blocking force, coming through with seven solo
blocks to frustrate MACA. An ace block in your face can give you the
blues to be sure. Psychologically this might have taken a toll for the
Tigers.

Paige Schieler of the Tigers came through with 14 kills while going
33-for-37 in good/attempts. Sydney Engebretson wasn't quite the force
she sometimes is, and on this night settled for ten kills and 41-for-45
in good/attempts. Nicole Strobel and MicKenley Nagel each had four
kills.

Schieler and Katie Holzheimer each had two ace blocks. Mikaela Henrichs performed 26 digs.

Beth Holland led in serve aces with three and went 18-for-22 in
good/attempts. Sadie Fischer had two serve aces and finished 12 of 14.
Tigers with one serving ace each were Strobel, Holzheimer and
Engebretson.

The Tigers close out 2012 on an anticlimactic note but with a still-impressive overall mark of 16-9.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

The football Tigers were awarded with a bye for yesterday (Tuesday, 10/23). It's to be expected when you own the No. 1 seed.

It would have been fun Tuesday to have another fan gathering at Big Cat Stadium. Now as things stand, we'll have only one post-season game here. The big night is this Saturday, Oct. 27.

For the record we're in Section 6AAA. We're a relatively small school in this class but we're unfazed as shown by that No. 1 seed.

I suspect few fans are expecting any sort of cakewalk. The Tigers have indeed had some cakewalk type of games this season. One was at the end of the regular season. The Tigers hosted a struggling YME team on Wednesday night (10/17). This fall break game ended with a score of 55-6.

What about volleyball? The Tigers' stock is high there too. They'll play a post-season match at their own gym on Friday evening (10/26). Please click on the permalink below to read my full post about Tiger volleyball. Also included are some paragraphs about cross country. This post is on my companion website, "Morris of Course." - Thanks for reading. - B.W.

Yet again the Tigers had a foe buried at halftime. The Tigers led the Sting 49-0 halfway through.

Fans could have anticipated this based on comparative scores. Yellow Medicine East lost to Paynesville 72-0 and the Tigers beat Paynesville.

There has been a trend around the nation toward more and more extreme routs. Some recent news reports indicate that tension can run high toward the end of these. In one instance, it was the losing team that was actually excoriated. A team in Michigan trailing badly toward the end managed to score a touchdown and then tried an onside kick. A physical altercation developed in the aftermath of this game, and an assistant coach with the winner got fired.

Should public high schools really be putting their imprimatur on an activity like this?

You're familiar with Albany if you travel between here and St. Cloud much. Its trademark is probably that golf course right next to the Interstate. Don't you wonder if any golf balls end up striking vehicles? When I was in college at St. Cloud State I'd stop at the Albany Dairy Queen en route home and get my essential chocolate shake, causing sighs among my passengers who often were itching to get home. Those were the days of my 1967 Olds Toronado.

The championship game for 6AAA is set for Friday, 11/2, at my alma mater of St. Cloud State. Kickoff time is 5:45 p.m.

Morris Area Chokio Alberta owns a spotless 8-0 record going into this Saturday.

Tigers 55, YME 6

The score was almost identical to when the Tigers trounced Montevideo for Homecoming.

The Tigers put 19 points on the board in the opening quarter. The MACA scoring express began when Tanner Picht carried the ball in from the four. The PAT try failed.

Austin Dierks scored with an interception return of 24 yards for MACA touchdown No. 2. Noah Grove kicked the point-after. Next it was Corey Storck bringing a wave of cheers from the home crowd fans, returning a punt 52 yards for a score. The PAT was no-go.

The MACA momentum just built up steam in quarter No. 2. Tom Holland had a scoring run of 19 yards and followed that up with a successful conversion run. Holland scored the next Tiger touchdown too, on a run from the ten. He was on the receiving end of a successful pass (from quarterback Jacob Torgerson) on the conversion play.

Torgerson passed 14 yards to Logan Manska for the next Tiger TD. Grove's toe was true for the conversion point.

Connor Metzger was the next Tiger to cross the end zone stripe. He brought a signal of "touchdown" from the refs with his run from the two. Grove added the PAT.

Bo Olson broke loose on a thrilling 85-yard run to complete the Tigers' scoring. This time the PAT kick was blocked.

YME got on the scoreboard when Austin Vikander, who has Morris connections, caught a 16-yard pass from Aaron Lalim.

Olson finished with eye-popping rushing stats of two carries for 90 yards. Holland turned in another workmanlike performance, carrying eight times for 65 yards. Aaron Nelson sprang forward for 48 yards in his seven carries. Jordan Staples picked up 24 yards on four carries. Picht and Metzger each had three carries for 17 yards.

Torgerson didn't have to put the ball in the air much. His two completions in five attempts were good for 42 yards, and he had no passes picked off. Understudy Bryce Jergenson completed both of his aerial tries, good for 17 yards (with no interceptions).

Trent Wulf delivered the only Tiger punt. Three Tigers each had one interception: Dierks, Manska and Devin Robertson. Metzger, Storck and Holland each had a fumble recovery. Tackle chart standouts included Tyler Henrichs, Dillon Johnson and Gage Backman. Quarterback sacks were performed by Chandler Erickson and Nate Vipond.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

I was riding my bike into town one day when I noticed a woman
pulling up to a stop sign along the service road by Pizza Hut. She
smiled as she frantically put on her seat belt. She had probably been
driving for just moments.

She's lucky because if she had been spotted in those few moments by
a police officer, she would have been cited. I was riding my bike
across the field on the north edge of Morris. I was on a road that gives
meaning to the term "non-maintained." It has always been like that.

Many years ago I was biking home late one night, around 3 a.m. in
fact (so it's morning?), and headed onto that road. I was working late
at the newspaper that night, proofreading. It was my habit Tuesday night
when I had to wrap up the sports pages of the Hancock Record and get
ready for Wednesday "press day" of the Morris paper. The Morris paper
appeared on Tuesday and Thursday then.

I pedaled toward home along Columbia Avenue, took a right onto the
state highway for a very short stretch, and then went north along that
primitive road. A Morris police officer spotted me and chased me across
the field.

I pulled over, then turned to stare at the oncoming vehicle whose
lights weren't flashing. A vehicle on that road at that hour was
unthinkable. So I figured it was probably police.

The officer recognized me in short order and everything was cool.
Not only did he know who I was, he probably knew I lived a short
distance to the north.

I wonder what would happen today. Number one, I'm much less
well-known today. I have "bum" status in this town, having been out of
work for six years. And secondly, police seem far less inclined to be
"cool" about things.
That nice lady in the car who appeared to have
driven a couple blocks without putting on her seat belt would get nailed
today.

I got an email from someone who reported she got a ticket just
driving from one place of business downtown to another. I saw the
flashing lights of a police car by the Willie's parking lot just a
couple days ago. Was it another of those ubiquitous seat belt
infractions?

I wonder if the officers deep down really feel comfortable doing
this. Perhaps they blot out all feelings and figure they just have to do
their jobs.

Today if I were riding my bike across that field at 3 a.m. and an
officer gave chase, I might have real cause to worry. Would the officer
pull his gun on me? Would I be at risk of getting shot and killed if I
made some "gesture" that he interpreted as threatening? Incidents like
these do happen.

I think the officer spotted me because there had been some thefts
at Super 8 Motel. He was probably positioned accordingly. And then he
thought, "who is that character out riding his bike at this hour?"

Technically the road across that field is non-public; it's
University of MN property. But no one has reservations about using it.
Forget using it if the conditions are wet and muddy. Forget using it
once snowdrifts form over it.

To get from Columbia Avenue to that road you use the highway for
just a couple blocks. At 3 a.m. there's barely any traffic on the
highway. But I am immensely careful bicycling on any road more major
than a county road. In daytime hours it would be essential to use the
shoulder. Even then I don't simply trust all the vehicle drivers who
would swish past me. I would rely on my sense of hearing and glance
backward, using peripheral vision, to make sure there was clearance
between me and the vehicles.

You really can't be too careful.

It's probably fundamentally unsafe for a bicyclist to use any road
more major than a county road. I have told people "it only takes one"
sleep-deprived truck driver to wipe you out. The danger is probably
greater in this age of distracted driving, "data overload" and
multi-tasking.

All this comes to mind reflecting on the recent tragic death of
Richard Vos of Belgrade. He was a popular teacher and coach, as
emphasized strongly in a regional daily paper, although there would be
no less cause for sympathy even if he was an undistinguished soul.

Mr. Vos was on bicycle "before 5 a.m.," the newspaper noted. I
wondered if that was a typo. "Was it really 5 a.m.?" Yes, I later
learned, it was 5 a.m. and this fellow was on bike on U.S. Highway 71
south of Belgrade.

Vos was a math teacher and coach at the BBE school. He was struck by a semi truck going south like him.

The Willmar newspaper reported that the road at the scene had a
gravel shoulder. So I suspect Mr. Vos may well have been riding along
the highway rather than on the shoulder. He was wearing a reflective
vest. The article reported "there were lights found at the scene that
may have come from the bike."

While Vos may have been thoughtful taking these precautions, in my
opinion he was in error thinking he was safe. At 5 a.m. you can cut the
darkness with a knife. There may be various lights along or near the
road that make it hard for bike lights to get your attention. At 5 a.m. a
truck driver isn't going to expect seeing a bicyclist along a highway
like this.

I'm trying to cut a little slack for the driver whose name is Brian
Anderson and who I'm sure is devastated by this. It will hang like a
cloud over the rest of his life.

The newspaper emphasized "the road there is flat and straight," so
the reporters are hinting, in my view, that Anderson is truly negligent.
According to the law he may well be judged negligent. But how many of
us might be thinking to ourselves, "there but for the grace of God go
I."

I'm assuming that Vos wasn't in violation of any traffic laws.
Bicyclists are allowed to proceed as if they are motorized traffic,
aren't they? And yet, I think the average person would look at how Vos
was traveling at that hour and think it was quite dangerous. That's
certainly how I'd assess it.

It's illegal to drive anywhere at any time or at any speed without
wearing your seat belt. There's no discretion. And yet Vos (in his
dangerous position) was probably in the clear legally. It does seem odd.

I think many of us view the aggressive seat belt enforcement as
just a way to get money into state coffers. Republicans push for this
because they want to keep taxes minimal. "Fees and fines" get pushed
upward but when will the public start pushing back?

The seat belt infraction once cost $40. Now it's $110. It was once
just a secondary offense because this was the only way lawmakers could
sell it to the public. Then they pushed it up to being a primary
offense. What's that old saying about one's "life, liberty and property
not being safe when the legislature is in session?"

Now I read in the Star Tribune about "pedestrian crosswalk stings"
that are beginning to crop up. One of these citations will set you back
$178. As with seat belt enforcement, police aren't above using deceit
and deception (i.e. plainclothes officers) to carry this out.
All to
satisfy their Republican masters in the state legislature.

How many people who are living "paycheck to paycheck" are going to be devastated by one of these citations?

Police say as if hypnotized that it's all for safety. Police are
supposed to use discretion. When judging speeding, for example, they're
supposed to consider the driving conditions. But we seem to see this
discretion less and less. Each citation spells more money for those
starved state coffers. The money comes pouring into a collection center
in Willmar.

There actually has been talk of tighter enforcement of traffic laws
for bicyclists. This discussion has sprouted in Morris. Shall we ticket
a kid riding his bike through a stop sign? That time may be coming.
Let's all suck our cheeks in, because things are going to get very
tight.

Republicans absolutely scream about not wanting to be taxed more.
So us common souls who simply have to get out and about have to be more
careful and vigilant.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Politicians govern with policies and not with debating skills. It's
scary that many people are evaluating "performance" as if this will be
the key criterion on which they vote.

It's the morning after the second presidential debate (10/17).
Media observers are scurrying to analyze performance. They decided that
Mitt Romney won the first debate. They decided our president had to come
out swinging for the second. To an extent, Barack Obama seemed to do
that.

But doesn't it all take on the aura of a hyped boxing match? Of
course we don't have such phenomena anymore. It probably waned when Mike
Tyson bit off part of his opponent's ear. So, no more "Shaker in
Jamaica" which was how the Jim Brown character in "Mars Attacks"
reflected on a mega match of his career. Yes, the rhyme isn't close
enough. It was a nice parody.

Remember the great Johnson-Goldwater debates? You don't, they didn't happen. It's ironic because four years earlier we saw the celebrated
Kennedy-Nixon debates when TV was still young. The 1960 debates are
still quite famous. They're a chapter in TV's rapid strides forward as
our household medium.

But there was no push in '64 for a repeat. It's surprising because
we had a candidate who was so rigidly ideological: Barry Goldwater. Adherents to ideology
are the prime debaters. Lyndon Johnson was the lumbering candidate of
inevitability, clearly riding the coattails of the late assassinated
president. I don't recall any suspense over the outcome.

Today the media would have none of that. A cynic might easily
suspect that the media delicately guide the presidential campaign so it
clearly is contested once the big day comes. That's scary because
clearly there are times in America when the public mood pushes one way
or the other. It should find its course like a stream.

In 1964 Johnson didn't even need debates to bury Goldwater.

There's a consensus today that we needed Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Reagan was a man of broad principles who probably would have struggled
with the kind of minutiae that today's debating seems to demand.

We elect a president on the basis of broad principles. Or at least
we should. A president needn't supervise the White House tennis courts
as Jimmy Carter did (unless that's just myth, but remember it wasn't
myth that Carter was once threatened by a swimming rabbit in a swamp).

Remember the great Nixon-Humphrey debates? You don't because they
didn't happen. I do remember "infomercials" (long before the term was
coined) that had Bud Wilkinson chatting with Richard Nixon. Wilkinson,
lest you have forgotten, was an old famous football coach.

Hubert Humphrey had been Lyndon Johnson's caddy. Had Humphrey been more
forceful about the U.S. leaving Viet Nam, well, we can only speculate.

There was a candidate in 1968 who said something about Viet Nam
that I applauded. Actually I found this candidate easy to applaud on
many occasions. It was neither Johnson nor Humphrey. Remember? The theme
was "Stand up for America."

He was a human being with human flaws as we all are. Heavens, Ross Perot demonstrated that years later.

In 1968 we had a man of the Deep South coming forward to enliven
the debate. It wasn't surprising he had baggage with regard to racial
questions. But on Viet Nam he said the following: "If it's not winnable
within 90 days of my taking office, I'll call for immediate withdrawal."

Really, boomers like me didn't even care if we "won." We wanted
out. At least Wallace suggested he was receptive to something drastic
(i.e. with the word "immediate"), so there was no need to penetrate fog
with regard to his stance.

Wallace probably captivated me because of his populist rhetoric and
the fact he could be an entertaining campaigner. I was an unusual child
in that I enjoyed digesting the evening news and looking at nuances of
what was going on.

The two major parties seemed staid like vehicles stuck in mud. And
there was Governor Wallace making blunt, populist-like pronouncements
and supplying some entertainment in the process. The "new left"
adherents of the time might deride him as "fascist." He retorted: "I was
killing fascists when you punks were in diapers."

It's true. Wallace flew B-29 combat missions over Japan in 1945. I
don't know if he had a Confederate decal on his plane. Some of the Deep
South fighters were known to project that kind of imagery. It's harmless
when you consider that the Confederacy was beaten, burned and kicked
aside.

Of course, a lot of bad stuff festered in the Deep South well into
the 20th Century. Wallace was a native of southeast Alabama and served
as a page in the Alabama Senate in 1935. What sort of ideas do you
suppose got impressed on him, coming from that kind of background?

He entered the field of law which even in the Deep South was tough
to spin in the direction of pure racism. He studied law in Alabama. He
was considered a moderate on racial issues when elected to the Alabama
House in 1946. Let's not pretend that's effusive praise. But what was he
up against? As a judge he was known to grant probation to some blacks,
and this is seen as hindering him in the 1958 governor's race.

His foe? A man endorsed by the KKK.

Wallace seemed a born politician. An ex-wife once said with a tinge
of bitterness that Wallace "didn't want a family, he wanted an
audience." As a journalist I'm tempted to applaud a little, for Mr. Wallace
that is. I understand the instinct.

Not wanting to be a loser, Wallace made what some have described as
a "Faustian bargain" in the wake of his 1958 loss. Appearing to sell
his soul, he began spouting segregationist rhetoric. He would later try
to renounce as much of this as he could. He would proclaim from his
wheelchair, perhaps having been humbled some by handicap, that he "did
not wish to meet his maker with unforgiven sin."

I truly had a fascination with the Alabama governor in 1968. I was
in junior high, not fully well-versed on all the relevant background,
and I found his directness appealing. I represented Wallace in an eighth
grade classroom debate. I wouldn't have had the time of day for any of
the other southern politicians who appeared to have racial issue
baggage, people like Strom Thurmond and Lester Maddox.

Somehow Wallace struck me as a little transcendent. I saw the
populist Wallace and not the Wallace who talked about segregation and
who "stood in the schoolhouse door."

Maybe my intuition suggested Wallace wasn't really the ugly racist
some of his actions of a particular time clearly suggest. He was once
circuit judge of the Third Judicial Court in Alabama. An
African-American lawyer would later say of Judge Wallace that "he was
the first judge in Alabama to call me 'mister' in a courtroom."

It may have been that Faustian bargain that did in Wallace, in a
way that shoved him in the minds of many into that same dark hole as
Thurmond and Maddox.

He served four nonconsecutive terms as Alabama governor. His life changed dramatically when he was shot and paralyzed in
1972.
We learn that Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and eventually even the
senior George Bush adopted toned-down versions of Wallace's anti-busing
(for desegregation) and anti-Federal government platform. Those
Republicans learned they could pry away low and middle-income whites from
the Democratic New Deal coalition.

In 1972, when seeking the Democratic nomination and no longer an
independent, Wallace no longer supported segregation. But he was
anti-busing and had Nixon as an ally in this.

He became a born-again Christian in the late 1970s. Continuing his
evolution, clues of which had been evident way back when he was a judge,
he apologized to black civil rights leaders for his past positions.

In 1972 he was battling George McGovern who at present appears to
be on his deathbed in a hospice. Let's say a prayer. Boomers will express tremendous warmth
toward McGovern when the statesman leaves this world. McGovern was the
dove on Viet Nam. History will be very kind to him.

Boomers might forget that McGovern was a lightning rod for
anti-progressive views, marginalized even in the year (1972) he ran for
president following an absolutely tumultuous Democratic national
convention.

Everything is calmed down now. We can view the influential
political voices of the 1960s with far more restraint than we did then.
George Romney (Mitt's father) said he was "brainwashed" about Viet Nam.
So it could be a very scary time.

Wallace's background was undoubtedly scary. Was I right speaking on
his behalf? Probably not. Second-guessing what we did in the 1960s is a
very easy pastime. That was then, this is now. And now we're weighing
Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney.

Those of you who might be inclined to vote for Romney based on
"debating skills," caution: You should only vote for him if you want
Republican Party policies enacted. Period. Be Careful.
And "stand up for
America."

Saturday, October 13, 2012

The opponent was Lac qui Parle Valley. The site was the Eagles' field which has a countryside location.

The Tigers own a 7-0 record going into MEA week (which I realize is probably an outdated term but it's an old habit).
The Tigers will take their spotless record into the Wednesday MEA week (fall break?) game, which will have YME as the opponent at Big Cat. YME has struggled a lot this fall. Look for our orange and black crew to take an 8-0 record into post-season.

I'm sure fans are itching for the post-season now. It might be a long ride once it starts.

The Tigers actually aren't alone at the top of the West Central Conference. BOLD also sits at 7-0. The Tigers and BOLD have no head-to-head competition in the regular season. I know, that seems strange.

I'm only now finding out there are no more North and South divisions in the WCC. Instead there's a "confederation" of ten teams. I hadn't gotten the memo when I wrote my first volleyball post of this season, so I referred to Minnewaska Area as a WCC-North team. I always thought it strange that MAHS vs. 'Waska games were non-conference.

Now with the confederation, the arrangement is a little easier to process and understand. But sometimes I think change happens too fast in high school sports.

It was the Eagles scoring first Friday. Dylan Erickson passed 35 yards to J.D. Struxness for the score, and Erickson kicked the point-after. I'm not sure if the cheers would be heard from Milan, Madison or Appleton, but they would be the loudest cheers all night for the Lac qui Paarle cause. Morris Area Chokio Alberta owned the rest of this game.

Tom Holland ran the ball in from the five for MACA's first score. Holland would finish the night with 111 rushing yards on 15 carries. Noah Grove kicked the point-after.

The Tigers began taking charge on the scoreboard when Lincoln Berget caught a short touchdown pass from Jacob Torgerson. Grove's toe was true again on the point-after. Then it was Holland scoring again on a run from the eleven. Grove kicked the PAT.

Tanner Picht scored the Tigers' fourth touchdown with a run from the eight. Grove's kick was good, as it was yet again after the Tigers' final TD which featured Aaron Nelson running 33 yards.

Behind Holland on the rushing list were three teammates who made substantial contributions as well: Picht (eleven carries, 46 yards), Jordan Staples (11-50) and Nelson (3-41). Torgerson completed four passes in ten attempts for 19 yards and had none picked off. The four catches were by four different Tigers: Nick Vipond (13 yards), Holland (four yards), Staples (one yard) and Berget (one yard).

Picht handled the Tigers' punting, averaging 37 yards. Mac Beyer came through with an interception, and Chandler Erickson had a fumble recovery.
The Tigers scored in all four quarters.

Click on the permalink below to read my review of the UMM Cougars' games 4 through 6. This post is on my companion website, "Morris of Course." My system is to post on the Cougars after every three games.

I was 50-50 on attending the Morris Area Homecoming coronation. I photographed this for many years with very good results. It was very enjoyable to attend.

One reason I don't these days, is I figure other people will photograph this and share.

Is my time done? Maybe not. The only photos the newspaper has appeared to share, as I write this, are posed photos of the Homecoming royal court members. Oh, that's fine. But the ceremony itself is delightful to photograph with its various aspects.

OK, so then I discovered that KMRS-KKOK has a photo gallery of the coronation on its website. I took a look and discovered that many of these photos are of poor quality. What a shame. I still have all my old camera equipment. I could be doing all this just wonderfully. It's water under the bridge for 2012 unfortunately.

I need to dismiss some of my inhibitions about showing up for some of these things, because the local corporate media just aren't cutting it.

Did the newspaper photograph the parade? Was the newspaper represented at the powder puff game? As for varsity game photos, the newspaper holds back way too much on its website with these. You're lucky to find one game photo in the week following a game. There's a few seconds of fuzzy video if that excites you. It isn't enough to print 3-4 game photos in the ink-on-paper version because it comes out so long after a game is played. It's not like we have a mid-week edition anymore. The company that owns the Morris paper pulled the rug out from under us with that.

So now that company puts out a weekly paper stuffed with a staggering pile of advertising inserts, many of which guide us to Alexandria. What an ungodly disgusting pile that is. Even if I were a compulsive shopper, I wouldn't be interested in looking at even a tiny fraction of this. It's pollution. I don't need to look at the "Classy Canary" with its full-page ad for Gesswein Motors. I'm not going to buy a car at Gesswein Motors. So please save the ink.

A reminder to MACA volleyball fans: Much of my writing on Tiger volleyball has been on my companion website, "Morris of Course." Here's a direct site link if you haven't been to the site before. You might look for a recent post I wrote reflecting on Dennis Rettke, former Morris school administrator who recently passed away.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

The Tigers are really becoming a team to watch in section. They have truly gotten their engines humming in recent play with one exception, and that exception might have an explanation in that the Homecoming powder puff football game was the night before!

Not only is the orange and black squad winning habitually, it is often doing so by sweep. Their Monday, Oct. 8, match was their first since the 0-3 loss they were dealt by Benson. The Tigers asserted themselves in a way indicating that the Benson match was a pure anomaly. It was a night for fans to savor sweep victory.

The Tigers hosted and defeated the Falcons of ACGC with scores of 25-14, 25-21 and 25-12. This was the Tigers' 14th win overall against seven losses. In conference play they came out of Monday at 7-3.

Anytime there's a sweep you can feel quite certain the winner showed balance. The Tigers indeed displayed that attribute for fans to enjoy Monday. How proficient were they? They had only four non-good attacks in 118 attempts.

There were three pillars in the attacking phase. Sydney Engebretson was at the fore with nine kills, and her good/attempts stats were 25/26. Nicole Strobel was focused to pound down six kills, and she was perfect in good/attempts at 20-for-20.

Paige Schieler was a force with five kills and she went 18-for-20. Kayla Pring went five-for-five with two kills. MicKenley Nagel had 17 good in 18 attempts with one kill. Katie Holzheimer was a perfect 15-for-15 with two kills. Rebekah Aanerud was sharp at 14-for-14 and she produced a kill.

The Tigers got a nice push from Chelsey Ehleringer and Beth Holland in the serving department. Each had three serving aces. Ehleringer batted a thousand with 18-for-18 in good/attempts. It was ditto for Holland whose good/attempts numbers were 15/15. Nicole Strobel added a serving ace to the mix and she had six good in eight attempts.

Holzheimer led the squad in set assists with 14 and she was flawless with 46 good in 46 attempts. Ehleringer was busy setting too and this Tiger was good on all 55 of her attempts while accumulating seven assists. Pring was ten-for-ten with one assist.

Homecoming Queen Nagel went up to achieve four ace blocks, leading in this category. Strobel and Holzheimer each had two.

Digging specialist Mikaela Henrichs led with 28 in this category. Ehleringer had 15 digs and Holland eleven.

The volleyball Tigers came out of Monday having won ten of their last eleven matches.

Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City is a below-.500 team. Falcon Sydney Larson pounded down 17 kills which was high for the match. Mariah Remmel had three serving aces in the losing cause.

Morris Area Chokio Alberta volleyball is in the midst of a busy week!

Click on the permalink below to view my Flickr album of MAHS Homecoming photos. When the Flickr page comes up, you might want to try the "slideshow" feature. It's neat! - B.W.

Two games remain in the MACA football team's 2012 regular season. It has been a highly banner season thus far.

Coach Witt's Tigers have yet to be beaten. Suspense has been minimal in many of the games. The Tigers take charge often. Will this happen again this Friday (10/12)?

Lac qui Parle Valley is the opponent and it's rather tough to size them up. At their best the Eagles are impressive like when they defeated Minnewaska Area 35-21 on September 21. They showed they could beat Benson when they edged the Braves by one, 21-20, on August 31. They also beat YME although YME has been a doormat this season. Success vs. YME came by a 35-6 score at Granite Falls.

Lac qui Parle has been on the losing end vs. Paynesville (28-0 on 10/5), BOLD (31-14 on 9/28) and ACGC (40-13 on 9/7).

So which Eagles team will show up this Friday? The game will be at Lac qui Parle out in that remote area which can seem especially remote at night.

After the LQPV game, just one regular season contest remains on the Tigers' slate and this will match them against the struggling Sting of Yellow Medicine East. The YME game is for MEA week which means it's on Wednesday (10/17).

The Tigers and Sting will play at Big Cat Stadium provided the Sting don't decide to forfeit. They lost to Paynesville 72-0 on September 28. There's really no cause for a score like that, no matter how the rosters match up. Teams losing by scores like this will have a hard time keeping their numbers up well enough to even continue having a program.

The Tigers own a 6-0 record as this post is being written.

YME includes Granite Falls which once had a powerful football program all by itself. Remember their distinctive nickname? It was "Kilowatts."

"Reddy Kilowatt" was the high school mascot for Granite Falls for nearly 60 years until consolidation. NSP had a power plant in Granite Falls for many years.

I'm sure many fans in Morris still remember a big win by Tiger football at Granite Falls in the late 1980s. The win was achieved dramatically with a trick play or gimmick play that had Kent Moser catching the football for a score. The thrower was Jared "Bru" Brustuen.

Thanks to Lyle Rambow for refreshing my memory on this. My memory had gotten a little fogged and I had thought Moser threw that pass, not caught it.

Granite Falls was considered a big obstacle for us at the time. I remember being in a school hallway, probably to keep warm, before the game and seeing those proud, chest-thumping Kilowatts headed down the hallway en route to the field. I remember a brawny guy in front shouting "we own this section!"

Granite Falls used a conventional hard-nosed attack while we were more fond of the pass and finesse. Our attributes won out, knocking Granite Falls down a notch. There was a big celebration of Morris fans on the field after the game.

Back to the present: My Saturday post on the Montevideo game (Homecoming) didn't include statistics. Let's get that taken care of here. We only had six first downs but that's because we were covering so many yards with big plays.

Quarterback Jacob Torgerson attacked the Monte defense surgically as he completed six of his seven pass tries for 199 yards and had no interceptions. Coach Witt might have left Jacob in the game to get over 200 yards but that hardly seemed necessary, so on came understudy Bryce Jergenson. Bryce completed his only pass attempt for ten yards.

Tanner Picht had just one catch but it covered 71 yards. Chandler Erickson sped over 84 yards of real estate on his two catches. Other Tigers with one catch each were Corey Storck (ten yards), Logan Manska (eight yards), Lincoln Berget (14 yards) and Tom Holland (12 yards).

Holland was the top ballcarrier with 70 yards achieved on just four carries. The running game was also buttressed by Picht (32 rushing yards), Jordan Staples (27 yards), Aaron Nelson (25 yards), Bo Olson (13 yards) and Jergenson (28 yards).

Trent Wulf performed the only MACA punt and it went for 35 yards. Staples and Berget each had a fumble recovery.

Tackle chart standouts included Staples, Connor Metzger, John Tiernan and Erickson. Two Tigers could boast a quarterback sack: Dillon Johnson and Tiernan.

I'm sure coach Witt was pleased with just the one penalty for five yards.

The night was futile for the visiting Thunder Hawks but Markus Kranz was able to rush for the robust total of 93 yards.

Cross country: Smith, Goulet lead Tigers

The Tiger harriers were off and running again for a Monday, 10/8, meet at Benson. The weather of late might seem chilly to us more sedentary folks - maybe I should just speak for myself - but runners can take to it nicely. After a mile or so, any sensation of cold seems to dissipate, I would suggest.

MACA displayed its share of excellence Monday. MaKenzie Smith was in championship form, posting a 15:38 time (4K) to beat all challengers. The MACA girls were runner-up as a team, trailing only host Benson-KMS. Sauk Centre's Madison Greenwaldt was the runner-up female runner (16:02).

Congratulations to the Morris Area Chokio Alberta gridders who won so convincingly Friday (10/5) in the Homecoming game. They are achieving their goals and then some. They are doing what they have been inspired to do.

I had to have a somewhat empty feeling, however, arriving at halftime (which is my habit) and finding the opponent so completely buried on the scoreboard. It was the Sauk Centre game redux. The 10/5 foe was Montevideo.

For many years it was all we could do to compete evenly with the likes of Montevideo and Sauk Centre. And now we're pounding them.

I saw a Montevideo player being attended to on the sidelines who may have been hurt quite badly. Is this game worth it? I would say no. But it's above my pay grade - my pay grade is zero - to decide what activities are healthy for our public schools to offer. If they want to sponsor gladiators, that's their decision. There are many people in this town who suggest I possess little wisdom. Maybe I'm just showing that again.

Hancock recently lost to Wheaton 70-8. Did anyone come out of that experience having benefited? You have to ask the question. Now, on to the game review:

Tigers 55, Montevideo 7

As the score suggests, our Tigers had a knack for "big plays." That tendency was fully on display in the first half. The score was 35-0 at halftime and 49-0 after three quarters.

The scoring barrage began with Tom Holland carrying the football in from the eight. Noah Grove, getting ever more seasoned and comfortable kicking, was true with his toe for the PAT. So the score is 7-0.

You ain't seen nuthin' yet.

The second touchdown came on a 71-yard pass from Jacob Torgerson to Tanner Picht. This time the PAT failed. On to touchdown No. 3: Picht scored this one too, this time eluding tackles in a 27-yard run. Torgerson passed to Chandler Erickson on the conversion.

Holland broke loose on a 29-yard run for the Tigers' fourth score. Grove kicked for the point-after. The big play surfaced again for the Tigers' final first half score: It was a 70-yard pass from Torgerson to Erickson followed by another good Grove kick. The rout is on.

The big Homecoming fan turnout was enduring the cold just fine.

Touchdown No. 6 came on a 14-yard pass from Torgerson to Erickson. Grove nailed the point-after with poise. Jordan Staples, a prolific scorer, punched the ball in from the eleven as the MACA onslaught grew. Again Grove kicked the PAT.

Montevideo scored on a punt return that had the returner appearing to be pinned back deep at first. He miraculously separated himself from the would-be tacklers and before you knew it, he was sprinting northward toward the Monte end zone. The name of this Thunder Hawk: Jimmy Haff. His return went into the books as an 81-yarder. Matt Fischer kicked the point-after.

Appropriately it was the Tigers ending the night's scoring. Bryce Jergenson scored on a 24-yard run, and shortly thereafter the game (mercifully) ended.

The MACA volleyball Tigers were up and down in Homecoming week, winning by sweep on the road and losing by sweep in the week's home match. My post on these two matches is on my companion website, "Morris of Course," and I invite you to click on the permalink below to read it. Thanks for reading. - B.W.

If you research what is happening with football at present, with all the talk of health concerns, what you learn is that there are more and more grossly one-sided games. Programs that are below average in their resources or numbers are struggling to keep enough boys out to continue playing.

The elite schools are holding their own for now. More and more they are having to play each other and traveling longer distances to do so. The weaker programs are shriveling up as prospective players and their parents 1) feel concern about the health hazards, and 2) find there are better things to do with their time.

A current in-depth article in Forbes emphasizes the latter. It's a bit of a contrarian article because it doesn't stress the head injury issue so much (or other injury concerns, which have always been well-known). It maintains that the culture of youth is changing. Football isn't the emblem for acceptance or admiration like it historically has been.

Where are we all headed? For the time being, Morris Area Chokio Alberta football is in fine shape. The broader picture isn't quite so encouraging.
But congrats to the Tigers on their success. The next foe is Lac qui Parle "out in the middle of nowhere" at that LQPV school. Listen for coyotes.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

It wasn't hard to
locate where the Homecoming powder puff football game was Wednesday. The
public address system was turned up pretty loud.
The game has
become a pretty big spectacle at Big Cat Stadium. It has risen from the
rather subversive status it had when it was played at Green River Park.
Those little "sound effects" at Big Cat are a nice little luxury too. At
Coombe Field - remember Coombe Field? - those embellishments would have
been unheard of. But there were features at Coombe field that haven't
been duplicated at Big Cat.
It was expected in a former time that the
MHS pep band would play for home games, at halftime in addition to
pre-game. If the band didn't show for some reason, people would ask
questions.
I remember one year there was no pep band for the opener which was on
Labor Day weekend. It was explained that the holiday had something to do
with it. The school year wasn't yet underway.
We can perhaps see some
irony here.
Back when I was involved helping plan high school reunions, I heard it
was folly scheduling a reunion for August. Everyone would write back and
say "I can't come because we have to get ready for school." I was
skeptical but who was I to talk? I'm not a parent.
Maybe in fact there is a building obsession in August about the new
school year to start. The irony comes when finding out why a pep band
can't be organized for the Friday of Labor Day weekend. The director is
informed by the kids: "I can't be there because we're going to be gone."
What happened with that obsession with school?
I explained my
puzzlement to a salesman I knew in town - salesmen are highly insightful
about human nature - and he said: "The ones who want to be there (for
the reunion) will find a way to get there."
I was also told once the band might have a hard time organizing because
of kids "having to work." So one day I said to coach Witt: "Does the
whole band work at Willie's?"
Where else would high school kids be tied
up on a Friday night? Maybe Willie (who was alive then) could have freed
up the musicians on Friday. I know Willie had a deep love for classical
music. (He might pronounce Brahms as "Braims" but his interest was
genuine.)
I have seen very little of our high school pep band since the move to
Big Cat Stadium. I should insert an asterisk here because I don't arrive
for games until halftime. I have been told that on at least a couple
occasions, a band was formed for playing pre-game but dissolved at
game's start. I consider that a letdown. When I was a kid the band would
play at halftime even if the weather was a little chilly.
We played
"Windy" and "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" before they were oldies. If the fans expected to hear a "charge," a trumpet player could just
play it, whereas today someone up in that headquarters place can press a
button. The old human touch had something to be said for it.
The Coombe Field days included cheerleaders on behalf of the Tigers.
This was another inspiring human dimension - girls wearing the school
colors and boosting enthusiasm.
Sometimes the visiting team at Big
Cat has cheerleaders. Have you noticed those and wondered if MACA would
be better served having this dimension again?
We can be conflicted. Some of us might say the traditional cheerleading
model is anachronistic. Let's be blunt: the old model had "cute girls"
performing routines that didn't necessarily involve a lot of talent. Maybe that's too cruel. You can maybe suggest cheerleading is innocuous -
the old model, that is. Newer models involve males and females together
with no stigma placed on the males. Such "cheer teams" as they are
called can attend competitions. Movies have been made about this which
frankly I haven't seen. But it sounds interesting and it ought to be
weighed here.
So, conjuring up memories of Coombe Field and its heyday involves the
band and cheerleaders in the atmosphere department. It was also like a
"town square" with people socializing in clusters all over the place.
Sometimes these were "moving" clusters. A group of junior high-age girls
might do "laps" on the track.
The "senior couch" was a tradition that grew late in Coombe Field's
history.
Big Cat Stadium is a jewel in this community today. It lacks
some of the old traditions but presents a state of the art feeling.
The football program should harness public relations better. We get
little help from the newspaper company in Morris which is a mere branch
of a Fargo-based chain. A Tiger football game isn't reported in the
print issue until a long time after the game - so long it really has no
value at all. Well, then there's the website, right? I have noticed that
when you click on a link to read about Tiger football, you'll just get
some material generated by the West Central Tribune. Isn't that a rather
substantial letdown?
And weren't you infuriated after the Tiger season opener when game
information was almost impossible to come by? The Willmar paper and its
website whiffed. Oh, they'll say they didn't get the information in
time. Well, why do we have to play by their rules?
UMM football has its own website home which is managed with tender
loving care. It's not backbreaking work. It shouldn't put anyone out.
And Big Cat Stadium would seem to be justification enough for local public
relations efforts that aren't tied to some newspaper whose main priority
is to shower us with dumpster-ready advertising circulars.
I didn't sit idly by after our season opener. I called coach Witt on
Monday afternoon, visited him at his house, gathered game information (a
big win with 30-plus points scored by the Tigers) and even collected
some tomatoes from his garden. He said I was welcome to come back for
more. I was happy to post a thorough game summary along with two photos.
People who want to promote Tiger football and Big Cat Stadium need to
think in terms of more of this being done. I'm happy to play my role for
now. But I'd be delighted to see web-based reporting systems for Tiger
teams that are newly-created and function with the coaching staff's
direct approval. No more worries about "calling in too late" on a Friday
night. In fact, why don't you all just get to bed and compile the stuff
the next afternoon, when rested, and be happy to see it posted on your
terms? If any errors are discovered they can just be corrected.
It would feel like a whole new frontier. Go for it!
The
powder puff football game probably doesn't warrant such a review, but
it sure looked fun for all. That P.A. voice (Lyle Rambow?) sounded like
"The Great and Powerful Oz" as it wafted over the UMM campus and beyond.
Good luck to the MACA gridders as they take the field tomorrow (Friday, Oct. 5)
for the 2012 Homecoming game against Montevideo. Football itself may be a
sport in trouble. Let's just take things one day at a time. I'm looking
forward to the kickoff.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Summer scenes around Morris, 2012

Click on the image to view a Flickr album of photos taken around the Morris area in the warm weather months of 2012. This group includes photos taken at the 2012 UMM graduation. The image above taken near Perkins Lake was chosen for display in the "Minnesota Explorers" Flickr gallery which is linked to Rick Kupchella's "Bring Me the News" MN website. Also chosen was a field of sunflowers photo I took. I'm delighted to have such platforms available. - B.W.

Past MACA Tiger football photos:

City of Morris perspective:

Pin it on your chest!

Click on the above image to access our "City Data" page.

Morris Theater - morris mn

Click on this image to read thoughts/reflections on our Morris Theater, which is hanging on through changing times (as a co-op). There is a link at the bottom of this post to read part 2 as well. These posts were written in spring of 2010 so there are some dated references. Any Morris native can spin some fond recollections of enjoying cinema fare there with friends.

Enjoy some fall scenery around Morris:

Enjoy some winter scenes around Morris:

Sam Smith statue - morris mn

Click on the image to read about the Sam Smith "running rifleman" statue at Summit Cemetery. This post explores the life of Samuel Smith, early Morris resident. He fought for the Union cause in several major engagements in the Civil War. The statue is patterned after the statue for the First Minnesota Regiment at Gettysburg National Park. This post is the newest of three that I have written about Sam Smith. I consider it the most comprehensive about the man. The statue can be an overlooked landmark of Morris MN. Everyone here ought to be familiar with it. Smith raised a large family north of Morris.

The first building here

In 1871 the first building erected within the village of Morris was the headquarters of the chief engineer of the railroad, C.H.F. Morris. With the railroad came the people.

The WCROC overlook

A nice view to the west is afforded from the WCROC overlook. It's a relatively new feature of the WCROC grounds. Specifically it's part of the WCROC Horticulture Garden. Click on the image to reach the West Central Research and Outreach Center (WCROC) website. Les Lindor was instrumental in making the overlook a reality. He served the West Central Experiment Station (the entity predating the WCROC) as ag engineer.

Stay informed about Stevens County MN:

Morris' music mecca:

Words to live by

This original and popular sign can be seen from the highway between Morris and Cyrus. It's associated with the late Dan Helberg. There used to be a sculpture next to it but perhaps it was removed due to legal restrictions (i.e. as a distraction). The sign has the thumbs-up for which we are grateful. Let's always heed these words.

Some spring/summer photo scenes:

The bike trail system

Call it both a walking and bicycling trail. It snakes along both the east and west sides of our Pomme de Terre River. You can do a complete lap which reportedly measures 4 1/2 miles. It's a fitness challenge for those willing to push their bodies a little! This photo was taken on the east side of the river, heading toward Lake Crissey (a wide spot on the river). Spring is a great time to get out there.

Our area's history:

Remembering "ag school"

From the time it accepted its first class in 1910, until it graduated its final class of seniors in 1963, over 7,000 students attended the West Central School of Agriculture. The precursor of the U of M-Morris, it opened its doors to its first class of 103 students in October of 1910.

Wildflowers out by the river

Click on this image to reach the "Minnesota wildflowers" website. This photo was taken on the west side of our Pomme de Terre River.

Before the current library

In 1921 the Stevens County Memorial Armory was built on the 100 block of East 6th Street, the site which is now occupied by the Morris Public Library.1969 saw the opening of the new Morris Public Library on the site of the old armory, leaving vacant the Carnegie building. The Historical Society found a new home in the Carnegie building in 1970.

A suggested restaurant

About Me

Brian Williams is a former writer in the Morris "dead tree" media who plies his pastime in the wonderful, liberating new media today. He refuses to consider himself an alternative journalist because the web is now the mainstream. Newspapers are in rapid retreat and it won't be long before they will exist in vestigial form only. Print media will not die because as a media observer put it: "We will always have print media for as long as there's a 'print' button on your computer." A once weekly newspaper (like in Morris) won't cut it. It's not consistent with our instant gratification culture. But the media are blossoming more than ever thanks to all the new tools. It's an uplifting, "green" new universe. Key word suggestions: morris mn - hancock mn - donnelly mn - cyrus mn - chokio mn - alberta mn - 56267 - stevens county - morris theater mn - morris area tigers - hancock owls.

Buy a car:

Pomme de Terre or Perkins?

Most maps identify it as "Perkins Lake" but it's known as Pomme de Terre to many local residents. The sign at the entry to the lake access uses the Pomme de Terre term, so that seems legitimate. This lake is part of a chain that represent wide spots on the Pomme de Terre River. Pomme de Terre Lake is useful for recreation and fishing, plus there are many fine residences along the shoreline. The chain is located several miles north of Morris.

A Destiny Driver. . .

"I Love Morris" is consistent with one of the "destiny drivers" as articulated by Stevens Forward! (named for Stevens County): "By 2010 we will enhance our interconnectedness by better utilizing the technology infrastructure to create a virtual community." (2010 is already here but this is always a "work in progress!")

We're the "Storm" in hockey

Click on this image to reach the official website of the Morris Benson Area "Storm" hockey program. Of course it's "MBA" for short. In Morris these teams play at the Lee Community Center, next to the fairgrounds.

B.W.'s country music memories, 1996-97:

Your Congressman:

Maintain perspective:

Main street of Morris mn

Atlantic Avenue is the main street of Morris and it's typically abuzz. Click on the above image to reach the Stevens County Economic Improvement Commission website.

Gager's Station

The first stopping place in Stevens County was Gager's Station, considered by some historians to be one of the more important stopping plces on the Wadsworth Trail. The station was nestled among the trees near Wintermute Lake.

VIDEO CLIPS

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The Eagles huddle

Blue is the color of the Morris amateur baseball team which goes by the nickname "Eagles." They're pictured about to break a pre-game huddle at their home: Chizek Field, named for the late Don Chizek who coached the Morris High Tigers for many years. The Tigers now have their own veteran coach in Lyle Rambow. Lyle had a successful playing career with the Eagles.

RIP jazz band leaders:

Best dog you could own:

"Dog is my co-pilot":

Superb early-morning TV:

Wind turbines - morris mn

There are two grand wind turbines such as this one on the eastern edge of Morris. It appears glistening white in this photo but they often are dark, silhouetted against the bright sky. A photographer never tires of them. They have become sustainable symbols of the community.

A trail of long ago here

The Wadsworth Trail was established by the U.S. Government in 1864 to transport supplies from St. Cloud to Fort Wadsworth, west of present day Sisseton, South Dakota.

No longer just a comedian:

She's upstaging Jim Klobuchar now:

Visit our McDonald's

It's a hotspot for dependable fast food and, just as important, socializing: our McDonald's Restaurant on the north end of Atlantic Avenue.

Our park in west Morris

Wells Park, located near Pacific Avenue and West 11th Street, was established in 1916 on land donated to the city by Henry Wells (a successful businessman and land investor) and Margaret Hulburd. Additional land was donated in 1935 by the Wells Investment Company, and in 1980 by Grace Zamerow.